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The Back Room :: Rules & Introduction >>

Have you ever wanted someone to help you work through material you already own?

Have you ever wanted someone to critique you and give you suggestions on how to improve?

Have you ever wanted to brainstorm with someone who performs similar material as you?

Have you ever wanted to session with another magician?

Have you ever wanted to someone more experienced to work with you as a mentor?

If you've ever been to a brick and mortar magic shop, the back room is the place where the real secrets are hidden. Those secrets are the difference between knowing how an effect is done and knowing how to perform an effect. You can't just walk into the back room, you have to earn your admission. You have to demonstrate your commitment, your skill and your ethics. This is Ellusionist's virtual Back Room. This is where you can go to bring your magic to The Next Level.

The Back Room is where you can go to learn with other magicians. Notice that we said "with" and not "from." In The Back Room, you can work with other magicians on fundamentals and foundations, routining, character development, patter and presentation. It is an area for learning and mentoring. We learn best when we set a goal. In The Back Room, you can set a goals and work with other magicians to achieve those goals. You will be learning with magicians who have experience -- Ellusionist's Elites and others who are active on the forums and who have the chops to help you take your magic to the new level.

How to get into The Back Room

To get into the Back Room, you will have to demonstrate through a video that you are serious about advancing your magic. The video will be a performance of a magic effect. The video doesn't have to be made specifically for The Back Room, but can be something that you have previously filmed.

1. Although a performance for spectators is encouraged, it isn’t necessary. However, the video must show a spectator’s perspective. A shot of a deck of cards in your hand isn’t enough. Any mentalism effects must be performed for an audience.

2. The effect should not be simple. Having someone pick a card, finding the wrong card and doing a color change to find the correct card will not be enough. Multiple phase effects (e.g. twisting the aces, wildcard, a cups and ball routine, 3 fly, etc.) would be helpful. Show us your best.

3. The effect must be presented. The patter must be more than merely saying what you are doing or telling the audience to “look.” We want to see that you've thought about the effect and made an attempt at preparing an original presentation.

4. Click here to post the video in The Back Room forum with your username and "Back Room Audition" in the title. The video will not appear once you post but will be viewable by moderators.

5. The video should be less than 10 minutes.

6. The video will be reviewed by a Moderator and you will receive a Private Message from The Shaman either inviting you to the Back Room or giving you suggestions of how to improve your performance if the video is not up to the standard to obtain admission.

7. Audition videos will not be made public for others to view regardless of whether you are invited into The Back Room. The only people that will view those videos are Moderators.

8. Videos will be judged on the skills shown, the difficulty of what was attempted and the presentation of the effect. The video will be the sole criteria for an invitation. A member's level of activity on the forum will not be taken into consideration.

Remember, a invitation to The Back Room is a recognition that you have obtained a certain skill level and are serious about advancing your magic. Do not be discouraged if you submit a video but do not get invited. That just means that you have to work harder and practice more before submitting another video.

Introductions & Information

Once you are invited into The Back Room, you will be asked to film a introductory video or make an introductory post. If you do a video, it should be less than 10 minutes and should tell us about yourself and your magic. Some of the questions that you should answer in the video or post are:

What is your name?

What city and country do you live in?

How long have you been serious about magic?

What resources have you been learning from? Please list the relevant resources you own (books and DVDs) and keep this list updated.

The video or post should be posted as a reply to the Introduction thread in The Back Room forum after you receive your invitation. To keep that thread manageable, we ask that nobody make any posts other than introductory posts. Any posts responding to an introduction will be deleted.

Before making that post, you are required to read the Code of Conduct (posted below). The first lines of your post should read:

“I accept the invitation to The Back Room. I have read the Code of Conduct and agree to abide by that Code of Conduct. I understand that if I break that Code of Conduct, either in The Back Room or elsewhere, my access to The Back Room will be revoked.”

Code of Conduct

The following is the Code of Conduct that all members in the Back Room must adhere to:

1. Respect of Each Other – Members shall give each other the utmost respect as fellow magicians.

2. Respect of Creators – Members shall recognize and respect the rights of those who create and publish magic. Members shall not teach any sleight, effect or routine to anyone who does not own the resource (book, DVD, lecture notes, etc.) explaining that sleight, effect or routine. Members shall not request to be taught any sleight, effect or routine if they do not own the resource explaining that sleight, effect or routine.

3. Exposure – Members shall not expose any principles, sleights or methods used in magic either intentionally (e.g. in exposure or teaching videos available to the general public) or unintentionally through performing (in person or in a video) without sufficient practice.

Inside The Back Room

The only threads that can be posted in The Back Room are “goal” threads. In a goal threads you will specify a goal that you would like to reach. A goal can be simple or complex, short term or long term and can focus on a single sleight, an effect, a routine or an entire show. Sample goals could be:

Perfecting your pass

Learning how to palm a coin

Mastering Twisting the Aces

Figuring out how to present Vector with a different handling and different sleights

Working through Ninja 1

Working through Royal Road to Card Magic

Coming up with patter for an effect

Developing a routine

Revising a routine to get better reactions

Developing a children’s show

Once you post a goal, a Mentor will volunteer to work with you to achieve that goal. This will ensure that the Mentor who works with you will have the knowledge and expertise to help you.Insomuch as every goal will be different, how you achieve that goal will be different. Members and Mentors can use any of the technology available including Skype (video or text), MSN or AIM as well as the posting of videos for teaching purposes or critiques on Youtube or Vimeo (please note that all videos posted for The Back Room on Youtube or Vimeo must be made private to prevent exposure). The member and the Elite can also work together through PMs or e-mails. It will be up to the member and the Mentor to figure out what works best.

The Back Room will NOT be somewhere that people expose or teach other people’s sleights and effects. Discussions of sleights and effects will ONLY be permitted when the member and Mentor BOTH own the material. Those discussions will take place outside the forum to prevent the inadvertent disclosure of methods to people who do not own the material.

Each member will be limited to one goal at a time. This is designed to keep the member focused and to prevent the Mentors from being overwhelmed with members pursuing multiple goals. The member and the Mentors are required to post period status updates regarding progress toward the goal. Those updates can be text or videos depending on the nature of the progress. Once a member has accomplished a goal, the member will be free to start another thread with another goal.

The Goal Thread should explain what you are trying to do and the resources you are using. You also can post a video to show where you are regarding a sleight or effect. The more information you provide the better.

For larger projects, it would be helpful to break them down into a number of smaller steps (e.g. developing a routine, fine tuning the patter, learning the sleights, putting ti all together, rehearsing and refining the routine).

Mentors will respond to your post. The member and the mentor can work out a plan for accomplishing the member's goal either within the thread or outside of the forum (through PMs, e-mails, Skype, etc.).

Although the mentor is there to help and advise the member, the member is responsible for their own progress. Mentors are not there to do the work for the members, but are there to guide the members. Mentors are expected to be honest and constructive. A mentor will not help you by saying you are amazing when you aren't. A mentor can only help you by pointing out what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong and then giving you suggestions of how to improve.

Both the member and the mentor are expected to update the goal thread with progress reports. We realize that a lot of the work will take place outside of the forum but we want the forum to be reflect what the members and mentors are doing and to show the community the results of their joint efforts. Progress reports can be text or videos. The progress reports will keep both the member and the Mentor focused on moving forward toward reaching the member's goal.

Want to be a Mentor?

Any of the forum's Elite members (which includes Moderators who are first and foremost Elites) can be Mentors. These are the magicians who have demonstrated their skills, their dedication to helping others and their love of magic. But we know that the Elites are not the only people on the forums with experience and knowledge. If you think you have the ability, knowledge and desire to be a Mentor, simply post a video in the video forums telling us about your experience, showing us your chops and letting us know why you why you think you should be a Mentor. People who are Mentors (but not Elites) will have the title "Mentor" appear beneath their name.

Mentors will also be able to have goal posts. We're all here to help each other.

Get to know our mentors here. (link accessible only to those with access)

At Ellusionist, we have one goal: to give you the power to perform magic beyond belief. We want to make you the life of any party. We want to make you into a performer. Composed of 12 individuals, we barely sleep, and we will do anything necessary to bring you the best magic, the best talent, the best training and playing cards possible.

We manufacture many of our own magic supplies, tricks, effects, and custom playing cards. We strive to create the very best magical products the world has ever seen. We work with the United States Playing Card co and have produced 14 lines of playing card decks that are repeatedly acclaimed by top industry pros and magic enthusiasts all over the world.